Van Gundy: Despite short career, Yao is a Hall of Famer

Sizing up a legacyHall pass in the cards?Although Yao's career was short, look at big picture

JONATHAN FEIGEN, Copyright 2011 Houston Chronicle

Published 5:30 am, Sunday, July 10, 2011

Photo: Nick De La Torre, Chronicle

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Yao Ming flourished in his matchups with Orlando's Dwight Howard, left. Yao averaged 23.6 points and 10.4 rebounds and limited the Magic star center to 12.2 points and 9.8 rebounds. The Rockets were 7-2 in the nine meetings between Yao and Howard. less

Yao Ming flourished in his matchups with Orlando's Dwight Howard, left. Yao averaged 23.6 points and 10.4 rebounds and limited the Magic star center to 12.2 points and 9.8 rebounds. The Rockets were 7-2 in the ... more

Photo: Nick De La Torre, Chronicle

Van Gundy: Despite short career, Yao is a Hall of Famer

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The question, repeated dozens of times through the day, will no doubt be posed to Jeff Van Gundy as long as he can answer. Van Gundy was the second of Yao Ming’s three NBA coaches, and for all he has or will accomplish, Van Gundy will be asked about the unique, iconic center he coached for four seasons with the Rockets.

Van Gundy had his answer, for a question not yet asked, ready.

“No. 1 to me, he’s a Hall of Famer,” Van Gundy said. “Idon’t care if you put him in as player, as a contributor or put him in with his own heading. This guy definitely gets in for the greatness as a player when healthy or what he did as ambassador.”

He then added a thought he would repeat often.

“People forget,” Van Gundy said, “just how good he was.”

With Yao’s decision to retire rather than attempt another comeback from another injury, discussions about his career always will include thoughts of what could have been. Yao, 30, played in eight of his nine seasons since he was the first pick of the 2002 draft, including the five games he played this past season.

Yao averaged 19 points in his career, improving his scoring average in each of his first five seasons to top out at 25 points per game. His prime, as with his career overall, did not last long. But at his best, a strong case could be made he had become the game’s best center.

Measures of greatness

“I don’t think people remember how dominant he was,” former Rockets coach Rick Adelman said. “He was a great offensive player and a very effective defensive player. You couldn’t guard him one-on-one. Shaq (O’Neal) was like that. Yao was like that. They were just too good. You had to send help against them. And if you fouled Yao, he was an 89 percent free-throw shooter.

“He became a very effective defensive player. He knew how to use his size to get in position that guys had a hard time finishing at the rim.”

Yao’s career scoring average would not seem to qualify as Hall of Fame numbers, but his style was not to chase numbers.

“It’s not in his heart to average 30,” said Chuck Hayes, who was Yao’s teammate for six seasons, longer than any NBA player. “He’s an unselfish player. He demands a double-team and then moves the ball. But he was tough to guard. He was super tough. His footwork in the post, with his size, was unbelievable.”

To Adelman, no game was a better example of that than Game 1 of the 2009 first round in Portland when Yao went 9-for-9 in the first half, scoring all 24 of his points, and forcing the Blazers to switch to a defense that the rest of the Rockets exploited through the series, the only playoff series they won during Yao’s career.

“It was one of the best games I’ve ever seen,” Adelman said. “He dominated them, forced them to double him. They couldn’t defend him one-on-one.”

To Van Gundy, the best example of Yao’s excellence was his play against Orlando centerDwight Howard. O’Neal was in decline, with Miami and Phoenix forced to give O’Neal double-team help against Yao. Howard had begun to dominate.

But Yao flourished in one of the few matchups in which he did not go against double-teams, averaging 23.6 points, on 56.1 percent shooting, and 10.4 rebounds in nine games against Howard. Howard averaged 12.2 points, on 45.1 percent shooting, and 9.8 rebounds in those games. The Rockets went 7-2 when Yao went against Howard.

“Dwight Howard is clearly the best center in basketball today,” Van Gundy said. “Yao Ming, when healthy, absolutely dominated Dwight Howard. This guy’s skill and will at that size, people forget just how great he was. When he was healthy, he was a dominant player.”

Hall of Fame chance

He did not stay dominant for long, missing 250 games in his last six seasons and playing just five games in his last two seasons.

Still, along with the questions about what could have been, there is also a sense the best was yet to come until the injuries took over. Yao had become better at using his full arsenal of offensive options, adding more drop steps and off-hand moves to his preferred jump hooks and fadeaway jumpers. He had become stronger at taking low-post position. The Rockets were far better at burning defenses twisted in knots around Yao, more often burning the fronting defenses that could keep the ball from him.

“I feel gypped I wasn’t able to see Yao and play with Yao with an opportunity to maximize his potential,” former Rockets forward Shane Battier said. “I would have loved to play with a healthy Yao at 31 , 32 years old with nine or 10 years of seasoning under his belt. I don’t think anyone would have stopped him. That’s the tragedy from a basketball sense. We were not able to see what could have been basketball-wise.”

‘He was so dominant’

That always will be a large part of the legacy of Yao’s career. But those who watched most closely would not let what could have been distract from what was.

“There is no doubt if he stayed healthy, we’d be talking about one of the top centers to ever play the game,” Adelman said. “He’s right there in the top 10. He had such unbelievable scoring touch. He was so dominant.”